Salute to Doctors and Hospitals
Community’s ‘valuable’ support
helps Wyckoff’s staff keep working
through COVID-19 pandemic
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center staff. Evelyn Chassagne
COURIER LIFE, MAY 15-21, 2020 23
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
As one of the hospitals in the epicenter of
COVID-19, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center
in Bushwick continues to treat patients
who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“I think without exception, the staff of
the hospital has taken on these great challenges
head on, and have worked as hard
and as much as they can to try to save the
lives of all the infected patients,” said Dr.
Gustavo Del Toro, executive vice president
and chief medical offi cer of Wyckoff Hospital.
“I’m very proud of them. It’s been an
incredible effort that most of our staff have
put into this.”
The hospital, located at 374 Stockholm
St. on the Brooklyn/Queens border, has a
dedicated staff of 1,800 physicians, nurses
and support personnel care for patients.
Earlier in the year, upon news of a
possible coronavirus outbreak in New
York City, the hospital began implementing
strict measures to protect its employees
and preparation to meet the surge of
COVID-19 patients, according to Del Toro.
On March 14, the hospital registered
its fi rst coronavirus-related death in New
York City.
“So far, we’ve had about 1,000 patients
admitted to the hospital with COVID or
suspected COVID,” Del Toro said. “The infl
ux of patients have slowed down quite a
bit, but there are still many patients in the
hospital that are extremely ill.”
According to Del Torro, the hospital
was operating at more than 100 percent capacity
during a fi ve-week period amid the
pandemic.
“Our usual capacity is 175 patients and
there were days where we had 230 patients
in the inpatient unit, while there were another
58 patients waiting for a bed,” Del
Toro said.
To accommodate patients with COVID-
19-related symptoms, the hospital created
new areas of inpatient care and critical patient
care in different parts of the building
that didn’t exist before March.
“For example, the pediatric inpatient
unit was converted into an adult COVID
patient unit with some ventilators,” Del
Toro said. “We also shut down our surgeries
and medical procedures and completely
closed down our ambulatory services.”
Many of those employees were deployed
to the medical inpatient care, emergency
department and critical care areas.
Following a shortage of Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE), the hospital has
received a stockpile of PPE for its staff, according
to Del Toro, and enough ventilators
from the state for patients.
As he spends his days helping to make
sure that clinical matters in the hospital
are running as expected, Del Toro described
being on the frontline with his colleagues
helping to fi ght the coronavirus as
challenging.
“This is a situation that I haven’t really
encountered over a long period of time like
that,” Del Toro said. “It was unbelievable
and still is.”
In response to the support of community
members who have donated meals to
the hospital staff, Del Toro said it’s “very
much appreciated.”
“Ten days ago we had an entire group
of NYPD and FDNY trucks and cars and
staff standing outside clapping for us,” Del
Toro said. “I’ve never seen that in my life.
You feel very appreciated and all of our
staff are happy to know the community,
and the government at large, appreciates
what we have gone through in the epicenter
of the disease. We still are, and to get
that support is very valuable and it makes
us continue to do it every day.”